Pakistan Veterinary Journal

ISSN: 0253-8318 (PRINT), 2074-7764 (ONLINE)

Accessible at: www.pvj.com.pk

Factors Affecting Milk Production in Buffaloes: A Case Study

Maqsood Hussain*, Abdul Ghafoor1and Abdul Saboor2

Department of Agricultural Economics; 1Department of Marketing and Agribusiness, University of Agriculture,

Faisalabad; 2Department of Agri. Economics & Economics, University of Arid Agriculture, Rawalpindi, Pakistan
*Corresponding author: maqsooduaf@yahoo.com

ARTICLE HISTORY ABSTRACT

Received: July 06, 2009 This study quantified the effect of major factors affecting the milk production in
Revised: January 14, 2010 buffaloes. The important factors considered for the estimation of milk production
Accepted: January 18, 2010 included the value of dry fodder, the value of green fodder, the value of
Key words: concentrate, number of lactations and the value of labour hours. A production
Milk Production function for milk was estimated by employing Ordinary Least Square (OLS)
Buffalo regression. In the estimated model among all the relevant variables, green fodder,
Fodders lactation number and labour hours were found to be the influential factors affecting
Concentrate milk production in this species.
Elasticity
©2010 PVJ. All rights reserved
To cite this article: Hussain M, A Ghafoor and A Saboor, 2010. Factors affecting milk production in buffaloes: a
case study. Pak Vet J, 30(2): 115-117.

INTRODUCTION quantity and quality of feeds and fodders, milk production

Agriculture sector plays crucial role in the economy
of Pakistan, and the livestock sector contributes almost
52% to the value addition in the agriculture sector and
almost 11% to Gross Domestic Products (GDP). The
utility of livestock sector is very important in the rural
economy of Pakistan, as it also provides employment to
30-35 million rural populations (Government of Pakistan,
2007-08).
In the livestock sector, milk is the most important
produce and essential item of our daily food requirements.
It is consumed as fresh and also in the form of various by-
products such as yogurt, butter, cheese etc. As the
population of Pakistan is continuously increasing, the
demand for milk is also expanding. Buffalo is the major
dairy animal in Pakistan and the estimated buffalo
population in the country is 29 million heads (Govt.
Pakistan, 2008-2009). Pakistan stands second among
buffalo-milk producing countries in the world (Bilal et al.,
2008).
One of the major reasons of low milk production in
Pakistan is absence of optimal level of feed and fodders
(Chaudhary and Ahmad, 1987). Available literature on
milk production suggests that milk production depends on
the breed of the animal, feeding optimal level of feed and
fodder, management and the climate of the dairy farm
location/region. Similarly, other factors include age of the
animal at the time of first calving, number of lactations
and health status of the animal (Rao, 1985). Among all
these factors, some factors have immediate effects on the
yield/production of milk. For example, by increasing the
can be increased. Similarly, protection of milking animals
from extreme climate temperatures of summer and winter
seasons increase milk production or at least maintains the
current level of regular milk production.
So, keeping in view absolute importance of milk
sector in national economy, it seems imperative to
conduct research on identification and quantification of
major variables affecting milk production. The specific
objectives of this study were: (i) to identify the most
relevant factors which affect the milk production (ii) to
quantify the elasticity of milk production with reference to
each of the independent variable.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Simple random sampling technique was used for the
selection of samples. In District Jhang, five dairy farms
were selected randomly from a list of 25 farms. Then from
these five farms, 60 buffaloes were selected to collect
information on daily milk production, daily consumption
of feeds and fodder of each selected milking animal
during 2008-09. This record of output (milk production)
and inputs (feeds and fodders) was maintained for seven
days in each month and the average values were
calculated, which generated one observation for each
month and hence a total of 60 observations from all the
farms. Two observations were not complete in the records
which were dropped. Finally, 58 observations were
available on all the variables for the selected model. The
data on both the dependent and independent variables was
transformed to natural log form. To estimate the milk

115
 116 Pak Vet J, 2010, 30(2): 115-117.

production function, a log-log model was employed models were estimated, among all estimated models log-
(Gujrati, 1995). The ordinary least square regression log form of the regression model was found to be the best
method was used for data analysis. Detailed information for the current data analysis. The functional form of the
of all the variables used in the model is given in Table 1. estimated model is given as under:
The estimated elasticity coefficients of regression model
are presented in Table 2. Log Y = a + β1 logX1+ β2 logX2 + β3 logX3 + β4 logX4 +
β5 log X5+ε
Table 1: Description of the variables used in the milk
production model Where: a = constant term and β’s = unknown
Variables Description regression coefficients to be estimated of the independent
Dependent variable variables and ε is random error term.
Y = Milk production Value of average milk yield
per animal per day (Rupees) RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Independent variables
X1 = Dry fodder Value of dry fodder used per The descriptive statistics for the variables which were
animal per day (Rupees) used in the estimated log-log regression model are
X2 = Green fodder Value of green fodder used presented in Table 3. This table provides the basic
per animal per day (Rupees) information on all the variables viz. minimum value,
X3 = Concentrate Value of concentrate used per maximum value, mean value and their standard
animal per day (Rupees) deviations. The factors selected for the milk production
X4 = Lactation number Number of lactation(s) were the value of dry fodder, the value of green fodder,
completed (including current the value of concentrate, number of lactations and the
lactation) value of labour hours.
X5 = Labour hours Value of labour hours used Out of five estimated elasticity coefficients (Table 2),
per animal per day (Rupees) three elasticity coefficients were significant (P<0.05). The
estimated elasticity coefficient for green fodder shows that
Table 2: The coefficients of the estimated milk increasing green fodder value by 1 percent the value of
production regression model milk production increases by 2.64 percent (P<0.05). In
Variables Estimated Standard Probability Pakistan, generally fodders like rice straw, wheat straw,
elasticity error level
maize, sorghum and millet are provided to the buffaloes.
coefficients
As the population in the country is increasing fast, it is
Constant 19.21
very difficult to allocate additional land for fodder
LnX1 0.42 0.63 0.506 NS
production (Ahmad et al., 1990) but at the same time
LnX2 2.64 1.27 0.042*
LnX3 2.04 1.46 0.169 NS investment in producing balanced and adequate feed is
LnX4 -0.76 0.16 0.000** essential for improving milk yield in the country (Afzal,
LnX5 2.15 0.58 0.001** 2010).
NS = Non-significant, * = Significant (P< 0.05), The variable of lactation number showed negative
** = Significant (P<0.01). sign with milk production and was found highly
significant. The coefficient of this variable shows that for
Table 3: Descriptive statistics of the variables used in every one percent increase in lactation number, there will
the milk production model be 0.76 percent decrease in milk production, keeping
Variable Minimum Maximum Mean Standard other factors constant. The behavior of this variable may
deviation be due to decreasing potential of milk production
Y = Milk 60.00 440.00 221.07 96.97 attributed to increasing age of buffaloes. Similarly, the
production estimated elasticity coefficient for labour hours used
X1 = Dry 3.00 4.00 3.30 0.36
reveals that by increasing labour hours value by 1 percent,
fodder
X2 = Green 24.00 28.00 26.66 1.07 the value of milk production increases by 2.15 percent
fodder (P<0.01).
X3 = 29.00 35.00 31.55 1.89 The computed F-value of the model was 14.16
Concentrate (P<0.01), indicating that a definite statistical relationship
X4 = 2.00 7.00 4.05 1.38 exists between the dependent variable and the independent
Lactation variables. Above findings conclude feed and labor as
number
X5 = Labour 2.50 3.50 2.94 0.33 important determinants of milk production in the study
hours area. Similar findings were found by Razzaque et al.
(2009), who concluded that feed and labour costs affected
The characteristics and related variable assumed to be significantly net income of dairy farms in Kuwait. The
affecting the milk production included dry fodder, green Durbin-Watson test value was 1.79, suggesting that there
fodder, concentrate and labour hours, as all these is no problem of autocorrelation in the data set. The
independent variables were expected to be positively coefficient of determination (R2) was 0.58 which indicates
related with the milk production. In the model building that all the explanatory variables explained 58 percent of
process, various forms of ordinary least squares regression the variation in milk production.
 117
Conclusions
Results of the present study revealed that green
fodder, lactation number and labour hours were relatively
more influential in the milk production. However, dry
fodder and concentrate had no effect on this trait.
REFERENCES
Afzal M, 2010. Re-designing Smallholder Dairy
Production in Pakistan. Pak Vet J, 30(3): In press.
Ahmad B, KA Qureshi and MA Bajwa, 1990. Economic
relationship of cottonseed cake and wheat bran with
milk production. Pak J Agri Sci 27(3): 203-206.
Bilal MQ, BB Khan and G Muhammad, 2008. Dairy
Industry in Pakistan. In: “Health and Husbandry of
Dairy Animals.” Edited by BB Khan, Department of
Livestock Management, University of Agriculture,
Faisalabad, Pakistan.
Pak Vet J, 2010, 30(2): 115-117.
Chaudhary AM and B Ahmad 1987. Cost of Production of
Milk and Beef in Faisalabad District 1981-82.
Research Report jointly published by Punjab
Agriculture Research Coordination Board and
University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan.
Government of Pakistan, 2007-08. Pakistan Economic
Survey, Economic Advisor's Wing, Ministry of
Finance, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Government of Pakistan, 2008-09. Pakistan Economic
Survey, Economic Advisor's Wing, Ministry of
Finance, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Gujrati DN, 1995. Basic Econometrics. 3rd Ed, McGraw-
Hill, Inc, New York, USA.
Rao BS, 1985. Factors affecting the milk production: A
case study. Indian J Agri Econ, 40(2):169-174.
Razzaque MA, M Bedair, S Abbas and T Al-Mutawa,
2009. Economic impact of calf mortality on dairy
farms in Kuwait. Pak Vet J, 29(3): 97-101.